A THUG who left a man badly hurt after punching him on the head in a Dumbarton street has been spared a prison sentence.

Andrew Moshi attacked his victim in Smollett Road on May 12.

The 30-year-old appeared at Dumbarton Sheriff Court on Friday for sentencing after pleading guilty at an earlier hearing to a charge of assaulting the man to his severe injury.

Moshi had also admitted charges of being in possession of an offensive weapon and of damaging a motor vehicle by striking it with a hammer, also in Smollett Road, on the same day.

Friday’s hearing was told the damage to the car had been estimated at £350.

Moshi, of Towerhill Road in Knightswood, was told by Sheriff Maxwell Hendry: “This was a nasty incident.

“You have a criminal record heading towards the bottom of a second page of previous convictions.

“I’ve had to think very carefully about a custodial sentence here, but I’m just pulling back from that.

“However, you have come about as close as I suspect you will ever want to come to going to prison.”

Instead of a custodial sentence, Moshi was ordered to do 150 hours of unpaid work within nine months as part of a community payback order; he will also be supervised by social workers until January of 2021.

In addition, he was told to pay £350 in compensation for the damage to the car.